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Best-selling author Da Chen will give the 2003 annual lecture for Friends of Skillman Library 5:30 p.m. today in room 104 of Kirby Hall of Civil Rights.
The lecture will be preceded by a reception and book signing in the Kirby Library from 4:30-5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Diane Shaw, college archivist and Friends of the Library secretary, at 610-330-5401 or shawd.
The talk, entitled “From Yellow Stone to Random House: A Journey of Books,” will reflect on Chen’s road from poverty and persecution in the China of Mao Zedong to his current life as an acclaimed author in the United States.
Chen grew up in the deep south of China, running barefoot in muddy fields and riding the backs of water buffaloes. In his tiny village of Yellow Stone, water was fetched from an ancient well swimming with snakes, and the only lights that burned in most households were hissing kerosene lanterns. As the grandson of a disgraced landowner, he was the victim of communist political persecution and harrowing poverty during the Cultural Revolution. His family was beaten, his father thrown into reform camp, and young Chen, at the age of nine, was threatened with imprisonment.
His salvation from this society came through family support, friendship, and education. A disciplined and brilliant student, Chen scored so high on his exams that he was admitted to the prestigious Beijing Language Institute, ultimately graduating at the top of his class and staying on to teach English. At age 23, he came to the United States to attend Columbia University Law School on a full scholarship. After graduation, he spent a short interval with an investment banking firm on Wall Street before discovering his passion for writing.
Chen’s first memoir, Colors of the Mountain (1999), about growing up in Yellow Stone, was written at the encouragement of his American-born wife, who had been fascinated by the wild tales he told of his childhood. Writing this book was a catharsis of sorts for the author, who was finally able to understand that the fault for his sufferings lay with Chinese society and not with him. When the book was published by Random House after an intense bidding war among five top New York publishing houses, it received rave reviews and became a bestseller. It has been called “a dazzling debut,” “earthy and literate, picaresque and humanist,” “a story about suppression, humiliation, vindication — and ultimately, triumph.”
Colors of the Mountain was followed in 2002 by the publication of Sounds of the River, a sequel to the first memoir, which covered his years in college in Beijing. Again, the reviews were glowing. “Chinese émigré literature has brought to these shores many new and interesting voices — the haunting lyricism of Ha Jin, the harsh worldview of Anchee Min, the righteous indignation of Adeline Yen Mah,” wrote the Los Angeles Times. “ Da Chen’s voice comes from the soil of China his exuberance for life and its possibilities set him apart from others in the genre.”
Chen has also adapted his memoirs for young adult readers in China’s Son, which appeared on numerous teen “best books” lists. His latest work, Wandering Warrior, has been described as “Harry Potter meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” It is his first book for young readers and will be made into a film. Chen continues to write from his home in New York’s Hudson Valley where he lives with his physician wife and two young children.